Some Tricky Words Practice

In this course, you’ll practice the sounds of American English that might sometimes be confusing. You'll practice both consonant and vowel sounds. You’ll also learn about the things that give English its special “music,” such as how to stress the right syllable in a word, how to make your voice go up and down in a natural-sounding melody, and how to naturally connect sounds and words. Learning these things will help you speak more clearly and make sure that others can understand what you're saying.
This course is useful for English language learners who want to improve pronunciation of American English for better communication.
Note that access to all of the lectures and handouts are free to anyone, but the graded assignments and quizzes are only available in the paid version of the course. You will need to submit recordings of your own pronunciation for graded assignments.

FU

Just finished the free mode course. This course is really great. I was expecting a lot from it, and I am very surprised it exceeded my expectations.

CD

Nov 05, 2017

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If English is not you native language, you can benefit enormously from this course, specially if you have been speaking English for a long time.

수업에서

Other Tricky Things

In this final week of the course, you'll look at a few more tricky points in American English pronunciation. First, you’ll learn about the different ways to pronounce the –s and –ed word endings, which have important grammatical meanings, and you’ll learn when to use each kind of pronunciation. Next, you’ll practice pronouncing numbers like 14 and 40, 15 and 50, 16 and 60 that can cause misunderstandings. You’ll also learn about the pronunciation of the words “can” and “can’t” –the difference between them might surprise you. Finally, you’ll practice some sound changes that happen when words come together in common spoken expressions like "gonna" for "going to," "wanna" for "want to," and "shoulda" for "should have."

강사:

Tamy Chapman

Instructor, International Programs

Marla Yoshida

Academic Coordinator

Brad Gilpin

스크립트

Practice Activity: Pronunciation of some Really Tricky Words. Now, let's practice listening to can and can't. Decide which word you hear in each of these sentences, and then repeat the sentence. Here's the first one. I can't go to the concert on Saturday. Did you hear can or can't? Yes, it was can't. Now, repeat. I can't go to the concert on Saturday. Here's the next one. If you want to, we can go on Friday instead. Did you hear can or can't? Yes, it was can. Now, repeat. If you want to, we can go on Friday instead. Here's the next one. Can't you remember what I asked you to do? Did you hear can or can't? Yes, it was can't. Now, repeat. Can't you remember what I asked you to do? Here's the next one. We can go in my car. Did you hear can or can't? Yes, it was can. Now, repeat. We can go in my car. Here's the next one. Can you help me with this? Did you hear can or can't? Yes, it was can. Now, repeat. Can you help me with this? Here's the last one. I can't understand what the speaker is saying. Did you hear can or can't? Yes, it was can't. Now, repeat. I can't understand what the speaker is saying. Now, let's practice listening to some numbers. What number do you hear in this sentence? This book has 290 pages. Yes, it was 290. Now, say the sentence. This book has 290 pages. What number do you hear? There are 17 people working in this store. Yes, it was 17. Now, say the sentence. There are 17 people working in this store. What number do you hear? There are 14 books on the shelf. Yes, it was 14. Now, say the sentence. There are 14 books on the shelf. What number do you hear? When is your birthday? It's March 30th. Yes, it was 30th. Now, say the sentence. When is your birthday? It's March 30th. What number do you hear? What time does the movie start? At 8:15. Yes, it was 8:15. Now, say it. What time does the movie start? At 8:15. Next, let us practice reading a story with the words you've been practicing. You'll have a chance to repeat each part. Mike and Abbey were planning a fourteen-day vacation But they couldn't agree on where to go. Let's go to San Diego, said Abby. We can go to the zoo and see all kinds of animals, and the weather is great. I hear the temperature is 70 degrees all year around. But I don't want to go there said, Mike. I'd rather go to a theme park. But theme parks are so expensive, said Abby. They charge $90 for a ticket. We can't afford it. You're right, said Mike. Why don't we just stay home? We can save a lot of money and we can have fourteen peaceful quite days alone. That's a great idea, said Abby. And that's what they did. Keep practicing these tricky words, can and can't, and numbers with -teen and -ty. So that you can say them easily and clearly.